I have officially been on Botswana soil for a full 24
hours! I am moved into my home-stay, I
have a cell phone, I know the names of most of my intake group (there are over
40 of us) although the names of my host family are not coming so easily…
Even though the flights were extensive and I was saying
goodbye to a whole lot, I found myself remaining continually positive and
freak-out free. The positive and excited feelings grew the closer I got to
Botswana, even running on about 7 hours of bus/plane/airport sleep over three
days I still had energy and excitement.
I have no doubt that this will catch up to me, but I’m seeing this as
encouragement that I have made the right decision in joining the Peace Corps.
Before leaving, I kept feeling as though I wasn’t prepared to make this journey
or that I hadn’t actually thought the whole thing out because I hadn’t suffered
a major freak out about spending the next 26 months on the other side of the
world (with the exception of the Saturday, but I was much more based on stress
about seeing everyone I love before I left and managing to get my 80 pounds of
stuff underweight and in one piece to the airport over moving to Africa for two
years). Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely had moments of doubt but, I was
able to squash them within a few seconds. And I definitely cried leaving my
parents in the airport. But it wasn’t the freak-out-oh-my-god-what-am-i-doing-turn-back-now
type of panic, it was mainly sadness, but not regret, over leaving my life in
the US behind.
I can say that as of week one away from home… I couldn’t be
happier to be here. I’m feeling that the long application, packing and goodbyes
feel like they will be worth it. Being in Botswana seems really ‘right,’ as
corny as that sounds. And, I can drink water from the tap… woot for no bottled
water!
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